Body condition score in antelope - Ulf Tubbesing
Body condition score in antelopes
Assessing the condition of your animals gives you an indication of the overall health of your animal is thus an important management tool. Both very thin or fat animal are prone to different health risks and will have suboptimal reproduction rates. In this article we will focus on antelopes.
Changes in body condition
It is important to recognise animals losing weight as early as possible since this allows time to identify the underlying cause(s) and take corrective measures to prevent animal losses.
There are many causes for an animal being in poor condition. The most obvious is insufficient nutrient intake, which may be primary starvation (e.g. in a drought), or due to poor food quality (unpalatable or poorly digestible food). An often overlooked cause is where nutritional demands exceed food intake (e.g. pregnant or lactating animals). Other important causes for an animal losing condition would be an inability to eat (e.g. bad teeth or other lesions in the mouth/jaw but also competition around feeding areas where timid animals are chased off by dominant animals in the herd). Disease can reduce body condition due to a loss of appetite and/or due to a loss of nutrients (e.g. worms, diarrhoea etc.).
Thus, when assessing an antelope’s condition, keep in mind that their reproductive status influences both behaviour patterns as well as nutritional needs. For instance, a female in late pregnancy or one with a lamb or calf at foot, has much higher nutritional demands. If these are not met by food availability, these animals will lose body condition. Males on the other hand are more likely to lose condition during the breeding season when they are busy fending off competitors.
Body Condition Score System
A number of ‘Body Condition Score’ (BCS) systems are used in different domestic animals. All work on a numbering system (from 1 – 5 or even to 9), where the lowest number is usually allocated to the animals in very poor condition, and the highest number to obese animals. After assessing several criteria and body regions, an animal is allocated a specific score.
When working with wildlife one often has to observe animals from a distance, and frequently does not get the chance to watch an animal for a long time before it disappears in the bush. To streamline things, we like to work with a simple 4-scale system, whereby 1 suggests a very poor condition, 2 poor condition, 3 is ideal, 4 is fat.
It takes time and practise to become proficient in applying a BCS system accurately. Spend time with the animals, observe them, get to know them and be aware of normal anatomic features in specific species.
Because one often sees the animal for only a short time and at a distance, we recommend that you always have a binocular or ideally a camera (with proper zoom) at hand when going into the field. Once back at home, you can take your time to view the pictures on your computer to properly evaluate the BCS.
For valuable animals it is a good idea to take comparative photos on a regular basis. This provides an ideal and permanent record of the animal’s trends in overall condition. Such a photo record will also enable you to spot (and monitor) early and minor changes in body condition. Remember, early diagnosis and intervention is always the best remedy.
To keep track of the different BCS of your antelope, ideally use a table like the one below, where a BCS score (and photo) is taken on a regular basis. This is only feasible if you can identify your animals, by either ear tags or other visual characteristics. If you see changes in the BCS, note down the likely cause of this. If there is no likely cause, the antelope might be sick.
